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Wednesday, September 30, 2020

Serena Williams Withdraws From French Open With Injury - The New York Times

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PARIS — The three-time champion Serena Williams pulled out of the French Open on Wednesday with an injury shortly before she was scheduled to play a second-round match, and then suggested the issue might keep her from playing another competitive match this year.

Williams, 39, who is one Grand Slam tournament victory shy of equaling Margaret Court’s record of 24 major singles titles, said her left Achilles’ tendon, which required treatment during her United States Open semifinal loss to Victoria Azarenka and kept her out of a clay-court tuneup event in Rome, had not sufficiently healed.

After warming up Wednesday morning for her second-round match against Tsvetana Pironkova on Philippe Chatrier Court, Williams said she consulted with her coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, and they mutually agreed that it was unwise for her to continue. So at the time when she normally would have been stretching for her match on the main show court, she made her way to the interview room for a virtual news conference.

“I really wanted to give an effort here,” Williams said, adding: “But just looking long-term in this tournament, will I be able to get through enough matches? For me, I don’t think I could.

The quick turnaround from the U.S. Open in New York earlier this month has been an issue for several top players. The French Open was moved from its usual dates in May and June because of high rates of coronavirus infection in France. The shift left only 13 days between the end of the U.S. Open and the start of the French, which left those who advanced to the later rounds in New York little time to recover.

The Open’s women’s champion, Naomi Osaka, withdrew from the French Open two weeks ago citing a lingering hamstring injury. Of the four men and four women who reached the semifinals in singles in New York, only Azarenka and the Spanish men’s player Pablo Carreño Busta chose to play in the Italian Open in Rome.

Within hours of Williams’s exit, though, Azarenka was out as well, beaten by Anna Karolina Schmiedlova, 6-2, 6-2. Azarenka’s defeat and Williams’s withdrawal mean that none of the four women’s semifinalists from the U.S. Open are left in the French Open draw.

While Azarenka has pressed right back into action in Rome after her loss to Osaka, the transition from hard courts to clay is not straightforward for many players, since it requires different tactics and footwork, including frequent sliding. For a player carrying an injury, the switch is often even more difficult.

Williams said her Achilles’ tendon was bothering her Monday during her first-round match, a 7-6 (2), 6-0 victory against Kristie Ahn. She said the challenge provided by Ahn was compounded by her struggles to conceal the pain she was feeling. “I had to focus on walking straight so I wasn’t limping,” Williams said.

She added: “I think Achilles is an injury that you don’t want to play with because if it gets worse, it’s one of the worst injuries. I don’t want it to get to the point where it can’t get better.”

Williams said she had been advised by her doctors to take at least two weeks of complete rest. “I think I need four to six weeks of sitting and doing nothing,” Williams said, signaling the potential end to her 2020 season, which was already shortened by five months because of the coronavirus pandemic.

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Credit...Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

“I don’t know if I’ll be able to play another tournament this year,” said Williams, who sounded upbeat, all things considered.

“If it was my knee it would be really more devastating for me,” she said. “This is something that just happened.”

“I feel like my body is actually doing really, really well,” Williams added. “I just ran into, for lack of a better word, bad timing and bad luck, really, in New York. It happened, but my body is actually doing really, really well.”

Christopher Clarey contributed reporting.

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With Cross Talk, Lies and Mockery, Trump Tramples Decorum in Debate With Biden - The New York Times

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WASHINGTON — The first presidential debate between President Trump and Joseph R. Biden Jr. unraveled into an ugly melee Tuesday, as Mr. Trump hectored and interrupted Mr. Biden nearly every time he spoke and the former vice president denounced the president as a “clown” and told him to “shut up.”

In a chaotic, 90-minute back-and-forth, the two major party nominees expressed a level of acrid contempt for each other unheard-of in modern American politics.

Mr. Trump, trailing in the polls and urgently hoping to revive his campaign, was plainly attempting to be the aggressor. But he interjected so insistently that Mr. Biden could scarcely answer the questions posed to him, forcing the moderator, Chris Wallace of Fox News, to repeatedly urge the president to let his opponent speak.

“Will you shut up, man?” Mr. Biden demanded of Mr. Trump at one point in obvious exasperation. “This is so unpresidential.”

Yet Mr. Biden also lobbed a series of bitingly personal attacks of his own.

“You’re the worst president America has ever had,” he said to Mr. Trump.

“In 47 months I’ve done more than you have in 47 years,” Mr. Trump shot back, referring to his rival’s career in Washington.

The president’s bulldozer-style tactics represented a significant risk for an incumbent who’s trailing Mr. Biden because voters, including some who supported him in 2016, are so fatigued by his near-daily attacks and outbursts. Yet the former vice president veered between trying to ignore Mr. Trump by speaking directly into the camera to the voters, and giving in to temptation by hurling insults at the president. Mr. Biden called Mr. Trump a liar and a racist.

Mr. Trump peppered his remarks with misleading claims and outright lies, predicting that a coronavirus vaccine was imminent when his own chief health advisers say otherwise, claiming that his rollback of fuel-efficiency standards would not increase pollution and insisting that a political adviser, Kellyanne Conway, had not described riots as useful to Mr. Trump’s campaign, even though she did so on television.

And even as he went on the offensive against Mr. Biden on matters of law and order, Mr. Trump declined to condemn white supremacy and right-wing extremist groups when prompted by Mr. Wallace and Mr. Biden. When Mr. Wallace asked him whether he would be willing to do so, Mr. Trump replied, “Sure,” and asked the two men to name a group they would like him to denounce.

But when Mr. Biden named the Proud Boys, a far-right group, Mr. Trump did not do so and even suggested they be at the ready.

“Proud Boys? Stand back and stand by,” the president said, before pivoting to say, “Somebody’s got to do something about antifa and the left.”

Mr. Trump also intensified his baseless claims of widespread electoral fraud from the debate stage. He again invoked the prospect of a “fraudulent election” and disregarded contrary evidence about mail-in voting offered by both Mr. Wallace and Mr. Biden. And Mr. Trump encouraged his voters to “go into the poll and watch very carefully” for any signs of misconduct — an encouragement that could cause disruption on Election Day.

Mr. Trump’s volcanic performance appeared to be the gambit of a president seeking to tarnish his opponent by any means available, unbounded by norms of accuracy and decorum and unguided by a calculated sense of how to sway the electorate or assuage voters’ reservations about his leadership.

In an election marked by sharply defined and stubbornly stable opinions about both candidates, the president’s conduct was the equivalent of pulling the pin on a hand grenade and hoping that the ensuing explosion would harm the other candidate more.

But Mr. Trump made no effort to address his most obvious political vulnerabilities, from his mismanagement of the pandemic to his refusal to condemn right-wing extremism, and it was not clear that he did anything over the course of the evening to appeal to voters who have disliked him, including those who reluctantly supported him four years ago.

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Credit...Ruth Fremson/The New York Times

The president did not take aim only at Mr. Biden; he also undercut his own advisers. After Mr. Biden criticized him for his handling of the coronavirus — “he’s a fool on this,” the former vice president said — Mr. Trump mocked his opponent for wearing “the biggest mask I’ve ever seen” and then belittled Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert.

“He said very strongly ‘masks are not good,’ then he said he changed his mind,” Mr. Trump said of Dr. Fauci. The president later said his own F.B.I. director, Christopher Wray, was “wrong” after Mr. Biden noted that Mr. Wray had said the radical left group antifa is more of an idea than an organization.

The debate, at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, quickly descended into name-calling and hectoring in the first 15 minutes, derisive attacks that were extraordinary even by the standards of Mr. Trump’s unruly presidency.

When Mr. Biden attempted to discuss voters who had lost loved ones to the coronavirus, Mr. Trump interjected. “You would’ve lost far more people,” he declared.

The former vice president alternated between smiling and shaking his head in bemusement and firing off attacks of his own as Mr. Trump kept interrupting.

In an exceptionally charged moment, Mr. Trump spoke dismissively about Mr. Biden’s deceased son, Beau, who died from brain cancer in 2015, rejecting an opportunity to show a modicum of personal grace toward his political opponent. Mr. Biden alluded to Beau Biden’s military service as he rebuked the president for having reportedly referred to America’s fallen soldiers as “losers.”

Mr. Trump answered with a rhetoric roll of the eyes, and began attacking Mr. Biden’s other son: “I don’t know Beau; I know Hunter,” he said, proceeding to ridicule Hunter Biden for his business dealings and struggles with drug addiction.

Amid Mr. Trump’s onslaught, Mr. Biden repeatedly offered blanket denials that there was anything inappropriate in Hunter Biden’s overseas work, and said he was “proud of my son” for confronting addiction.

Credit...Ruth Fremson/The New York Times

One of the few phases of the debate that might have been taken by an open-minded viewer as an extended and articulate exchange of views came on the subject of the coronavirus pandemic. Mr. Trump voiced impatience with a range of public-health restrictions and Mr. Biden criticized the president for being dismissive of measures like mask wearing and social distancing.

“If we just wore masks between now — and social distanced — between now and January, we would probably save up to 100,000 lives,” said Mr. Biden, who also alluded to the disclosure in the journalist Bob Woodward’s recent book that the president had intentionally misled the American people last winter about the severity of the virus.

Mr. Trump, reiterating his demands that the country return to normal, called on Democratic governors to “open these states up” quickly.

But even on a matter as grave as the pandemic, Mr. Trump indulged freely in personal mockery. When Mr. Biden called him “totally irresponsible” for holding mass rallies without health protections in place, Mr. Trump responded by mocking Mr. Biden’s more constrained events, suggesting the former vice president would hold large events, too, “if you could get the crowds.” The president, at another point, falsely claimed Mr. Biden had finished at the bottom of his college class. “There’s nothing smart about you,” Mr. Trump said to his opponent.

Mr. Biden at times mocked Mr. Trump, recalling at one point the president’s suggestion that people inject disinfectant into their bodies to combat the virus, a gaffe that for a time ended Mr. Trump’s daily briefings. “That was said sarcastically,” Mr. Trump claimed, though his remarks appeared to be in earnest at the time.

For all his evident frustration with Mr. Trump for not abiding by the rules, Mr. Wallace made no attempt to correct the president as he unspooled a series of falsehoods. Mr. Trump, for example, insisted that Mr. Biden had once called criminals “superpredators.” But it was Hillary Clinton who said it, in 1996. And he did not correct Mr. Trump when he said Ms. Conway did not describe riots as helpful to Mr. Trump’s campaign.

In addition to lobbing false allegations, Mr. Trump also was unable, or unwilling, to discuss policy issues in a detailed manner. Pressed on whether he believed in climate change, the president said, “I think to an extent yes,” before quickly adding: “We’re planting a billion trees.”

Credit...Doug Mills/The New York Times

Overshadowed though it might have been, the policy content of the debate’s opening phase mirrored the stark contrasts already on display in the race. On the Supreme Court, the two men split over whether it was appropriate for Mr. Trump to name a new justice to the court in the final months of his term, with the president offering a defiant rationale for doing so: “We won the election,” he said, “and we have the right to do it.”

Perhaps more surprisingly, Mr. Trump dismissed Mr. Biden’s warning that Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision guaranteeing women’s right to abortion access, was “on the ballot.”

The president projected disbelief, though the decision would plainly be vulnerable to being overturned by a conservative court. “There’s nothing happening there,” Mr. Trump insisted.

Mr. Trump had no defense for Mr. Biden’s warning that if the Supreme Court struck down the Affordable Care Act it could imperil women and people with pre-existing conditions, nor did he offer a substantive response to Mr. Wallace’s question prompting him to articulate a specific vision for health care policy.

The president argued that he had already done so, though he has not, and said that his success in repealing the Obama-era law’s individual mandate was a “big thing” on its own. Instead of finally filling in the blanks of his health care agenda, Mr. Trump sought to go on the attack against Mr. Biden, tying him to the “socialist” aspirations of the left wing of the Democratic Party.

Mr. Biden, who campaigned against socialized medicine in the Democratic primary, deflected the attack — “I am the Democratic Party right now,” he said — and sought to keep the focus on Mr. Trump’s lack of health care policies besides gutting the A.C.A.

“He doesn’t have a plan,” Mr. Biden said. “The fact is, this man doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”

For Mr. Trump, this first debate appeared to be his best chance to change the trajectory of a presidential race that has so far resisted all manner of Trumpian efforts to shake it up. The president has cycled through an array of attacks against his Democratic challenger in recent months, criticizing or outright smearing Mr. Biden’s governing record, personal ethics, economic policies, family finances, and mental and physical health — often relying on misinformation and falsehoods.

Over the last month, Republicans have made an especially concerted push to brand Mr. Biden as overly sympathetic to racial-justice protests that have turned unruly and insufficiently committed to maintaining public order.

Yet that argument has not budged the race an inch in Mr. Trump’s direction, or changed the minds of a majority of voters who take a negative view of his personal character and his leadership during the pandemic. From the outset of the race, Mr. Trump has prioritized his largely rural and conservative base ahead of all other constituencies, and he has done little to reach out to Americans who do not already support him.

Rather, in a year of tumult, there has been one constant: Mr. Biden has enjoyed a steady lead in the polls since he effectively claimed the nomination in April.

Propelled by women, voters of color and whites with college degrees, and faring better with Republican-leaning constituencies than Mrs. Clinton did in 2016, the former vice president is better positioned going into the final month of the election than any challenger since 1992.

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To Battle Covid, Airlines Bet on Disinfectants That Come With Questions - The Wall Street Journal

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A worker sprays disinfectant inside a Delta airplane at the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington, Va., between flights to kill any coronavirus left on surfaces.

Photo: Nathan Ellgren/Associated Press
By

Scott McCartney

Many airlines have suspended beverage service because of the pandemic, but they are serving a new brew in passenger cabins: multiple doses of disinfectants.

Between flights, most are spraying seats, armrests, tray tables, overhead bins and other areas with chemicals that come with toxicity warnings and require gloves and eye protection to apply. The virus-killing mixtures have been approved by the Environmental Protection Agency, and manufacturers and airlines say they are safe. But they have never been used with such frequency and volume on aircraft.

Make no mistake—killing the virus that has killed a million people world-wide is the priority. But scientists say long-term effects of one chemical used by several airlines, including the three biggest U.S. carriers, aren’t well known, and multiple applications of it each day hasn’t been studied. The chemical is a quaternary ammonium compound. QACs, or quats, have been linked to lung damage and asthma.

The coronavirus is not hard to kill: Many types of cleaners and disinfectants can do the job. And some that work, including those made with citric acid or hydrogen peroxide, are less toxic than QACs. Either way, scientists say there needs to be more study of long-term exposure.

“It’s definitely a concern, and one that we’re watching with a little bit of alarm,” says Sarah Evans, assistant professor of environmental medicine and public health at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York.

The potential risk comes mainly from the possibility of inhaling QACs. Airlines say cabins are dry and odor-free before pilots, flight attendants and passengers board. But there’s little if any testing to ensure chemicals aren’t lingering in the air or on surfaces, they say.

“The regular once-in-awhile flier has nothing to worry about,” says Jagdish Khubchandani, professor of public health at New Mexico State University, who has studied QACs. But crews and frequent fliers, once frequent flying resumes, would be more at risk, he says.

“We are on a dangerous path here,” Dr. Khubchandani says.

The Middle Seat quizzed each U.S. airline on exactly which chemicals they are applying in cabins. All responded except Alaska. Spirit declined to disclose what chemicals it is using—a spokesman said that was “proprietary” information.

While airlines have been quick to promote their cleanliness programs—cleanliness has become a competitive issue during the pandemic—it turns out most are using the same stuff.

A cleaner called Calla 1452, approved for aircraft use since 2000, is used by American and Delta. Southwest uses Sani-Cide EX3, a lactic acid cleaner and disinfectant made by Celeste Industries. United, JetBlue and Hawaiian use both.

Calla 1452, made with QACs, is rated in the EPA’s second-highest hazardous category for health and can severely irritate and damage skin and eyes, according to the safety data sheet issued by the product’s manufacturer, Zip-Chem Products. (Many household-cleaning products earn the EPA’s fourth-highest rating.) The chemical dries quickly, but gloves and safety glasses are recommended for routine use and people should avoid breathing vapors, the product information says.

QACs are found in household cleaning products, but not in the quantities sprayed in airplanes. Mount Sinai’s Selikoff Centers for Occupational Health issued a paper in 2015 citing studies linking asthma to use of cleaning products containing QACs.

Zip-Chem Products, based in Morgan Hill, Calif., says the EPA toxicity level is for the concentrated form and is lower when diluted for normal industrial use.

“With regards to multiple applications on surfaces, Boeing has been evaluating our product, as well as other disinfectants, for its impact on multiple uses throughout the day. There has been no evidence of any accumulation for Calla 1452,” says Zip-Chem research and development lab manager Jason Smith.

After several months of use in cabins, airlines and unions representing crew members report no complaints. Judith Anderson, an industrial hygienist and health and safety expert for the Association of Flight Attendants, says the union has had some reports from members concerned about the products being sprayed, but no reports of illnesses or problems.

Flight attendants have been much more concerned about passengers refusing to wear masks, Ms. Anderson says.

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While she can’t unequivocally declare the chemical spraying safe, she says, her group’s main concern is the spread of Covid-19. “So under the circumstances, people are willing to accept more than they would if we did not have a global pandemic under way,” she says.

Celeste says Sani-Cide EX3 is registered with the EPA for use on aircraft, as well as general industrial and commercial settings, and has gone through test criteria designed by the airline industry to be compatible with cabin interiors.

“When used as directed, Sani-Cide EX3 should not leave any undue residue on the surface and is safe for multiple times a day,” says Emily Romblad, Celeste’s customer marketing manager.

Dr. Evans says lactic acid products like San-Cide EX3 don’t raise as many concerns as QACs. She and others suggest airlines should be rotating products to minimize the exposure to particular chemicals.

Another concern: Is dousing the cabin with sprayers overkill? Workers wiping down high-traffic surfaces could be just as effective, scientists say. But that takes more time and labor and may not be as reassuring to an apprehensive public. Airlines say the disinfecting will continue after the pandemic.

That’s a concern to some. “We cannot be living like this forever,” Dr. Khubchandani says.

Airlines are pursuing alternatives, including ultraviolet lights that kill viruses.

Delta is working with Lysol on developing new virus-killing products for airports and airplanes. And American is working with the EPA and Allied Bioscience to develop protocols for electrostatic spraying of an antiviral substance called SurfaceWise2 that leaves a protective coating capable of killing viruses for long periods.

Delta has been using Matrix #3, a brand name for Calla 1452, for over a decade, but uses it more now. The airline sprays cabins with the product between flights and has workers wipe it on high-touch surfaces.

“It is a very, very safe product. It’s one where people can board immediately following the conclusion of the cleaning process,” says Mike Medeiros, Delta’s vice president of global cleanliness.

The EPA has given American emergency authority to spray SurfaceWise2 on airplanes in Texas, home to American’s largest hub.

The EPA has rated it effective for seven days. That number could increase as tests come back. It does get worn down by abrasion from clothing or even wipes that passengers use to disinfect.

American hopes to expand spraying to its entire fleet. So far it has sprayed about 10% of its single-aisle airplanes.

The actual treatments come after an overnight deep cleaning of the airplane. It takes a pair of workers, each spraying a side of the cabin. The spraying happens twice—once when things like overhead bins and tray tables are open and once closed. Treating a plane like a Boeing 737 takes about three hours.

“We think we really have a game-changing product,” says David Seymour, American’s chief operating officer.

SurfaceWise2 has the same toxicity—EPA level 4—as many household cleaners, Mr. Seymour says.

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How an Australian girl with autism forged a bond with Philadelphia Eagles - ESPN

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Peter Dinoris and his family live in Brisbane, Australia, some 9,500 miles -- or close to a half-world away -- from Philadelphia. Yet they are massive Philadelphia Eagles fans. How could they not be? The Eagles play in the city where the breakthrough happened, and champion a cause that couldn't hit closer to home.

Like many tourists, Dinoris wanted to run the "Rocky" steps at the Philadelphia Museum of Art with his daughter, Leah, and son, William, when they first came to town eight years ago. William is a big fan of boxing as well as the iconic "Rocky" movies, so the touristy trip to Philly made sense while mom, Brenda, was in Ohio attending a conference centered on autism.

So Peter booked a private tour that wound through the streets where fictional character Rocky Balboa (played by Sylvester Stallone) roamed in the movie. The tour culminated at the art museum. Peter warned the tour guide the outing might be short-lived. Leah, 8 years old at the time, has severe autism. Previous stops on their trip to the United States did not go well without Brenda.

Leah was in the midst of a three-year period where looking into her father's eyes or simply hearing his voice sent her into extreme meltdowns. She would hit her head against walls or onto floors. That meant when Peter got home from work, he couldn't talk until Leah was in bed.

"William, my younger son, that poor kid, didn't hear me speak for three years unless we were out without her," Peter said. "It was a very difficult time."

But Leah loved the tour and instantly took to Philadelphia. With the day going so well, Peter decided to run up the steps while carrying her -- Leah facing outward, of course, so there would be no eye contact -- and she laughed and joyfully kicked her legs the whole way. When they got to the top, Peter took a chance and turned Leah around.

She kissed him.

"And she doesn't give kisses," Peter said. "I was crying, staring at the city.

"I thought: 'We're going to have a relationship. Things will change.' I actually felt like a dad at that moment, which was a really deep, deep feeling."

A big NFL fan, it was only natural to adopt the Eagles as his own. As fate would have it, his new favorite team created the Eagles Autism Challenge in 2018 -- a biking/5K/sensory walk fundraising event -- and the Eagles Autism Foundation in 2019, which has helped raise more than $9 million for autism research and care.

The Dinoris family has become one of its top donors through grassroots efforts in Australia, where they have called on local celebrities, sent hundreds of emails and have even purchased billboards to help spread the word. The family raised about $24,000 for this year's Autism Challenge, which originally was scheduled for May before being moved to Sept. 26. They had planned to visit from Australia to participate in the festivities, but like many things, it was held virtually because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Eagles still managed to raise more than $3 million for autism research and care through this year's event, thanks to donors from 14 countries, nearly 3,000 virtual participants and 284 fundraising teams.

"So the Eagles, what they're doing is raising substantial funds to get the research out there," Peter said. "When Leah was diagnosed back in those days, there was very little information around for autism, but now there's substantial amounts. The research is getting quite technical, and it's improving the understanding of the children with autism.

"People's acceptance of them as well is very important -- understanding and just loving them rather than being scared of them. So it's helped a long way not only for our family, but just for the community in general."

For Eagles chairman/CEO Jeffrey Lurie, the cause is personal. His younger brother, Peter, is autistic. Growing up, Peter was non-verbal so he and Jeffrey bonded through music, spending hours in the pool listening to Bob Dylan and the Beatles. Things changed when Peter suddenly began communicating his emotions through typing when he was in his 30s, revealing an ocean of thoughts and feelings that until then had been below the surface.

Stories like Lurie's and the ones shared by the Dinoris family are not unusual; in fact, they are becoming increasingly more common. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, about 1 in 54 children have been identified with autism spectrum disorder, up from 1 in 150 in 2000.

"There are so many individuals around the world who share the same experiences as Peter and his family. I am one, as it has been part of my family's journey for over 60 years," Lurie said. "Being so close to it personally, you empathize with the Dinorises and with so many others who cope with the unique challenges that autism presents on a day-to-day basis. Leah is a wonderful daughter, sister and friend who brings great joy to everyone around her. As a community of supporters, we need to continue our mission of turning autism awareness into action for individuals like Leah and families everywhere."

Peter's relationship with Leah, now 16, has shifted dramatically since that initial trip to Philadelphia. Leah has only a handful of words, but two of them are "dad's girl." Peter called her "my best friend." She is a music fanatic, so Peter wrote a song about her titled "The Dizer," which is Leah's nickname. He convinced local artist Nik Phillips to compose and record the song, which actually made it onto Australia's Top 100 list, Peter said.

"We're very close now. She won't leave the house without me," he said. "She won't leave me alone now, which is the opposite, but I prefer this much better."

The research into non-verbal communication has helped remove barriers. Leah has learned to use cards and an iPad to express her wants and needs. Instead of trying to guess what she is thinking, the Dinoris family now knows.

One thing that comes across clearly: Leah loves football. Peter's son is a Dallas Cowboys fan, creating a division rivalry under their own roof, but Leah roots for the Eagles alongside her dad.

"She gets excited. We watched the Super Bowl [in 2018] together. She was very happy with that," Peter said with a laugh.

The family has returned to Philadelphia twice since the breakthrough on the "Rocky" steps in 2012 and on each occasion, the city has had a relaxing effect on her.

Leah has gotten to the point developmentally where the family feels she would be able to handle a walk with other people around, so they're very much looking forward to a return trip to participate in the Eagles Autism Challenge when circumstances allow.

"We still kept pushing to raise funds because that's the most important bit," he said, "and hopefully we'll make it one year."

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Trump Derails 1st Presidential Debate With Biden, And 5 Other Takeaways - NPR

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President Trump ran roughshod over debate moderator Chris Wallace and his Democratic opponent Joe Biden — and crossed many lines in the process. Patrick Semansky/AP hide caption

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President Trump ran roughshod over debate moderator Chris Wallace and his Democratic opponent Joe Biden — and crossed many lines in the process.

Patrick Semansky/AP

This was maybe the worst presidential debate in American history.

If this was supposed to be a boxing match, it instead turned into Trump jumping on the ropes, refusing to come down, the referee trying to coax him off and Biden standing in the middle of the ring with his gloves on and a confused look on his face.

Trump doesn't play by anyone's rules, even those he's agreed to beforehand. He's prided himself on that. But even by his standards, what Trump did Tuesday night crossed many lines.

He's president. More than 200,000 Americans are dead from the coronavirus pandemic. And instead of a serious debate about the direction of the country, Trump sent it off the rails.

Most charitably, both former Republican Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and former Republican New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who helped Trump prep for the debate, said he was "too hot."

"I think the president overplayed his hand tonight," Santorum said on CNN.

Here are six takeaways from the first Trump-Biden debate.

1. Even for Trump, he went too far

For part of the debate, Trump looked like he was controlling the stage. He interrupted constantly and tried to distract, deflect and interject. That's fairly typical Trump behavior, but a few things in particular were egregious.

When Biden, for example, was talking about his late son Beau's military service, Trump went in on Biden's other son, Hunter, and brought up his past cocaine use. It backfired.

Biden, looking directly to the camera, turned something he rarely talks about into a positive, sympathetic moment.

"My son, like a lot of people you know at home, he had a drug problem," Biden said. "He's overtaken it. He's fixed it. He's worked on it. And I'm proud of him."

Later, when Trump was asked to denounce white supremacists and militia groups — and specifically the far-right extremist group Proud Boys — he instead said this: "Proud Boys, stand back and stand by." And then he denounced left-wing groups. (Proud Boys is now using Trump's words as part of a new logo.)

What's more, Trump would not urge his followers to remain peaceful as votes are counted, including if there are delays in reporting the results.

"I'm urging my supporters to go into the polls and watch very carefully because that's what has to happen," Trump said, adding, "If it's a fair election, I am 100% on board. If I see tens of thousands of ballots being manipulated, I can't go along with that."

2. Trump likely did nothing to expand beyond his base

Trump's base will probably love his performance. But coming into the debate, Trump was behind in the polls. That's no secret.

He needed to try to win back suburban and independent voters, both of whom he won in 2016 and who have largely abandoned him this cycle.

So who was this performance for exactly?

Trump repeated his "law and order" appeal to white, suburban voters and tried to force Biden to repeat the words. But Biden didn't take the bait and pivoted, calling for "law and order with justice where people are treated fairly."

And Biden said this about Trump and the nature of his appeal.

"He wouldn't know a suburb unless he took a wrong turn," Biden said. "I was raised in the suburbs. This is not 1950. All these dog whistles and racism don't work anymore. Suburbs are by and large integrated."

3. Biden missed opportunities

This was not Biden's cleanest debate. He was not crisp, was often flummoxed — as was moderator Chris Wallace of Fox News — by Trump's antics.

"Will you shut up, man?" said Biden while trying to make a point. He also called Trump a "clown" more than once.

Biden missed some opportunities. For example, when Trump was talking about the role of masks in preventing the spread of the coronavirus, Biden could have interjected more forcefully to talk about Trump's largely maskless rallies. When Trump claimed his rallies caused no harm, Biden could have pointed out the spike in coronavirus cases after Trump's Tulsa, Okla., rally.

The former vice president had some stumbles and some moments that weren't great for him, like not answering if he would add justices to the Supreme Court — "pack the court" — if Judge Amy Coney Barrett, Trump's nominee to succeed Ruth Bader Ginsburg, is confirmed.

That was likely overshadowed by Trump's demeanor, but for the next debate — if there is one — Biden's team will need to try to sharpen him up.

4. Trump tried to tie Biden to the far left, but it didn't work

Trump tried his darndest to paint Biden as a socialist, or at least beholden to the "radical left." But on issue after issue — "Medicare for All," defunding the police, the Green New Deal — Biden disavowed policies the Trump campaign has tried to lasso to him.

Biden just restated his positions, and they all line up with the middle of the electorate, far more than Trump's policy positions do.

That might have harmed Biden with the progressive left, particularly when it comes to the Green New Deal, if Trump hadn't gone quite so Trump.

5. Trump's response on his handling of COVID-19 was more of the same

More than 200,000 Americans have died from COVID-19, and coronavirus cases are spiking again in some parts of the country.

And yet Trump's tactic when defending himself on his management of the pandemic was to insult Biden's smarts.

"He panicked or just looked at the stock market, one of the two, because guess what?" Biden said. "A lot of people died and a lot more are going to die unless he gets a lot smarter a lot quicker."

Trump's response?

"Did you use the word 'smart?' " Trump asked rhetorically, adding, "You graduated either the lowest or almost the lowest in your class. Don't ever use the word 'smart' with me."

Trump said he disagreed with his own experts on a vaccine timeline, insisting it would soon be widely available. But making rosy assertions to the public is exactly what got him in trouble after Bob Woodward's latest book, Rage, revealed that Trump privately knew the virus was worse than he let on publicly.

He tried to claim Biden would have made the pandemic worse. "Two million would be dead now," he said.

But Trump is president, and, on average, a majority of Americans say they disapprove of the job he's doing handling the coronavirus.

6. Good luck to the next moderator

Before the debate, Wallace said his goal was to be "invisible."

By the end, he might have wished he was. The role was no easy task, and the next presidential debate, Oct. 15, is set to be moderated by the far more mild-mannered Steve Scully of C-SPAN.

After the first presidential debate of the 2004 election, Internet conspiracies abounded about a mysterious bulge in the back of President George W. Bush's jacket. Some believed, unfoundedly, that there was a communications system rigged up by White House advisers to coach him.

Bush dismissed that, cracking wise.

"I guess the assumption was that if I were straying off course they would ... kind of like a hunting dog, they would punch a buzzer, and I would jerk back into place," Bush said afterward.

Maybe something to look into.

The Link Lonk


September 30, 2020 at 04:00PM
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Daily Crunch: Amazon lets you pay with your palm - TechCrunch

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Amazon unveils a new biometric ID technology, the Biden campaign takes aim at Facebook and iRobot’s co-founder joins a robotic gardening startup. This is your Daily Crunch for September 29, 2020.

The big story: Amazon lets you pay with your palm

The company announced a new biometric device for Amazon Go stores. Called Amazon One, the first time you use it, you insert your credit card and scan your palm; after that, you can just hold your palm over the device when entering the store and Amazon can automatically charge you for the items you purchase.

If you’re worried about privacy and security, Amazon said the images are encrypted and stored securely in the cloud, and it also argued that palms are more private than other forms of biometric identification, since you can’t determine someone’s identity just by looking at their palm.

The technology is being tested in two Seattle-area Amazon Go stores. The company suggested that the technology could eventually be used by third parties, for example at stadiums and office buildings.

The tech giants

Ringing alarm bells, Biden campaign calls Facebook ‘foremost propagator’ of voting disinformation — In a new letter to Mark Zuckerberg on the eve of the first presidential debate, the Biden campaign slammed Facebook for its failure to act on false claims about voting in the U.S. election.

Serious injuries at Amazon fulfillment centers topped 14,000, despite the company’s safety claims — More than 14,000 serious injuries (requiring days off or job restrictions) were reported in fulfillment centers in 2019, according to a story in Reveal.

Pivoting during a pandemic — Facebook’s vice president of Messenger discusses how his team has responded to the new normal.

Startups, funding and venture capital

Starlink puts towns devastated by wildfires online for disaster relief workers — A couple small towns in Washington have received Starlink connections to help locals and emergency workers.

iRobot cofounder Helen Greiner named CEO of robotic gardening startup, Tertill — Launched as a 2017 Kickstarter, the product is essentially a solar-powered robotic weed whacker designed to live in the user’s garden and do routine maintenance.

Online course platform Thinkific raises $22 million — Thinkific is different from businesses such as MasterClass and Skillshare because it doesn’t create, distribute or monetize online classes itself.

Advice and analysis from Extra Crunch

Duolingo CEO explains language app’s surge in bookings — Luis von Ahn tells TechCrunch that Duolingo has hit 42 million monthly active users, up from 30 million in December 2019.

Healthcare entrepreneurs should prepare for an upcoming VC/PE bubble — Patientco CEO Bird Blitch has a warning for entrepreneurs.

9 VCs in Madrid and Barcelona discuss the COVID-19 era and look to the future — Part one of a two-part survey that polled 18 active investors in the region.

(Reminder: Extra Crunch is our subscription membership program, which aims to democratize information about startups. You can sign up here.)

Everything else

Disney+ adds a co-watching feature called GroupWatch — Disney’s experience has some advantages (like the fact that it works on internet-connected TVs), but it lacks one of the hallmarks of co-watching, namely a chat that runs alongside the video.

Polaris and Zero Motorcycles reach deal to bring electric off-roaders to market — Polaris is a name synonymous with powersports.

The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 3pm Pacific, you can subscribe here.

The Link Lonk


September 30, 2020 at 01:27PM
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With Friendly Visits to Republicans, Barrett Makes Her Capitol Debut - The New York Times

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WASHINGTON — Judge Amy Coney Barrett, President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, made a low-key debut on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, largely sidestepping a storm of Democratic anger as she met with friendly Republican senators eager to muscle through her nomination before Election Day.

Judge Barrett arrived at the Capitol flanked by Vice President Mike Pence and Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff — an unusually high-level escort that underscored what Republicans see as the high stakes of her confirmation for the court as well as their political fortunes. Republicans who met with her throughout the day were unanimous in their praise, leaving little doubt that she would be confirmed.

“We truly do believe that Judge Barrett represents the best of America personally, in terms of her great intellect, her great background, and we have every confidence that as the American people learn more about Judge Amy Coney Barrett, they will be as inspired as President Trump was when he made her nomination,” Mr. Pence said before a meeting with Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader.

Judge Barrett, in a dark blue dress and a single strand of pearls, stood solemnly and silently next to Mr. McConnell, who did not answer whether the judge, if confirmed to the nation’s highest court, should recuse herself from any cases related to the election.

Hours later, the White House formally sent Judge Barrett’s nomination to the Senate, for the official start of what is expected to be an uncommonly fast sprint to confirmation.

Paperwork submitted on Tuesday to the Senate by Judge Barrett herself underscored that point. In 69 pages of responses to questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee, she disclosed that the White House had contacted her about the vacancy the day after Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death, and that Mr. Trump offered her the nomination only two days later, on Sept. 21, after they had met at the White House.

“The president offered me the nomination on that day, and I accepted, subject to finalizing the vetting process,” Judge Barrett wrote.

She was always identified as the president’s probable pick, but she was not formally announced until five days after the offer was evidently made. In the meantime, Mr. Trump continued to say he was still considering other candidates. The lag allowed Judge Barrett and the White House to get a head start on a process that in recent decades has usually taken more than two months; Senate Republicans are aiming to complete it in about half that time.

The rest of the questionnaire was mostly dry. The responses largely consisted of biographical information and a catalog of public speeches, academic writings and opinions she had written as an appeals court judge.

The document did show that as a corporate lawyer, law professor and then judge, Judge Barrett amassed $2.75 million in assets and that she had continued to earn thousands of dollars a year teaching after she joined the appeals court. The records show that she has $157,000 in liabilities, mostly related to a mortgage on a personal residence.

If the more than half-dozen senators who met with her throughout the day — all at a careful distance because of the pandemic — tried to pin down her views on politically thorny legal issues like abortion rights or the Affordable Care Act, they gave little public indication.

“What I’m looking for, and I think what she stands for, is the rule of law,” said Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, who was the chairman of the Judiciary Committee when Judge Barrett was confirmed to the appeals court in Chicago in 2017.

Senator John Thune of South Dakota, the No. 2 Republican, said Judge Barrett had “described herself as somebody who’s in the tradition of Justice Scalia,” the conservative legal icon whose opinions were critical of abortion rights, and for whom Judge Barrett had clerked. But Mr. Thune said he did not press her on specific legal issues.

Outside the wood-paneled Mansfield Room, near the Senate chamber where Judge Barrett and Republican senators met, there was little good feeling to be found in a Capitol at war over her nomination.

A cohort of Democrats, led by Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the minority leader, pledged to boycott the usual “courtesy” meeting process with the nominee. They are fiercely opposed to filling the seat when voting is already underway in many states, accusing Republicans who refused to consider President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee in 2016 of rank hypocrisy.

“I will not lend legitimacy to Mitch McConnell’s efforts to steal another Supreme Court seat,” said Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts. “We need to treat this nomination like the illegitimate power grab it is.”

With little power to block the nomination, Democrats have sought to frame the confirmation battle as a referendum on health care, given that the Supreme Court is set to hear a case that could overturn the Affordable Care Act in the days after the election. Without any Republicans present on the Senate floor, Mr. Schumer on Tuesday successfully set up votes on legislation that would prevent the Justice Department from moving to strike down the Affordable Care Act, ensuring that Senate Republicans would have to vote on health care legislation before the election.

On the Senate floor, Mr. McConnell and Mr. Schumer argued bitterly over the confirmation. Brushing past Judge Barrett’s writings casting doubt on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act, the Republican leader accused the Democrats of fabricating a threat to Americans’ health care to score political points.

“That’s the claim: This mother of seven, including multiple children who were born or adopted facing pre-existing medical challenges, is just itching to block families like hers from accessing medical care,” Mr. McConnell said. “What a joke.”

Mr. Schumer charged Republicans with “manufactured hysterics” for saying Democrats were attacking Judge Barrett’s Catholic faith.

“Not a single Democrat will make these attacks or make religious beliefs an issue,” Mr. Schumer said.

The fight is expected to escalate in the run-up to four days of hearings next month in the Senate Judiciary Committee. Republicans were aiming to confirm Judge Barrett by the end of October.

Luke Broadwater contributed reporting.

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September 30, 2020 at 06:06AM
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